Anson Gleason Chester

Born in Connecticut to Joseph Chester and Prudee Tracy, the eighth of nine children.

Graduate of Union College, 1849 (with an A. M. degree)

Was a Presbyterian minister, and served as a missionary to the Choctaw indians, and was a pastor of the Indian church at Mohegan.
Also associated with the Cattaraugus Mission (this may be Rev. Anson Chester, who is someone else, and somewhat older.)

He served as a Major in the Civil War (with the 24th New York Cavalry?)

Author of the poem “The Tapestry Weavers”

Married Mary Tillie Staines (of Buffalo, NY) on November 21, 1852. Four children, Winfred Tracy (born Oct. 10, 1853) and Anson
Couldock (born July 28, 1855), Carlton (born about 1857), and Alfred T. (born February 1860). (Another source suggests that she
was Mary Tilly Donovan, but gives the same date.)

An odd Poe connection: Chester was an editor of the Buffalo NY Commercial Advertiser in the late 1850s. Prior to this, the newspaper
was printed by C. F. S. Thomas, who had been the printer for Poe’s Tamerlane and Other Poems in 1827.